If you went to high school with me and want to see what some of those folks look like ten years later (or you didn't and just want to see what sorts of people I went to high school with and a few pictures showing what a sexy bitch I am in black pants and a nice shirt), Angie has some pictures from the reunion up on her myspace page.
Sue and I attended my ten year high school reunion on Saturday. Lots of interesting emotions ran through my head even before we arrived: fear, self-loathing, nervous dancing, anticipation, joy. Sue can attest to the fact that I was so nervous that morning that I was feeling nauseous.
Anyways, the reunion turned out to be really great. There was about an hour in the beginning where Sue and I were sort of by ourselves; not really mingling nor being mingled with. Part of the problem was that the folks who showed up were heavily skewed to the popular crowd; Not exactly my posse in high school. Luckily, our organizer had the brilliant idea that each meal should include two free drink tickets. Once I had a few in me, I was more than capable of mingling, dancing, and joking with people I had not seen in ten years! Special thanks to Chris & Jenny for offering up their tickets. I’m so much more laid back with 6 Jack & Cokes in me as opposed to a mere 3:)
Name tags are definitely a must at an event like this, although I was really surprised how many names I could pull out of the air even ten years later. One of the amusing jokes we had all night related to the fact that, in addition to placing each alumni’s high school picture on their name badge, our organizer decided to place the alumni‘s picture on their guests name badge as well. This of course led to the rather amusing thought that if you see a guest by themselves, you could never be sure if they were really a guest or if that alumni just had a LOT of surgery and a first name change (not that we would judge or anything…)
I have a bunch more comments about this, but for now I think I should get back to work. More to come tomorrow!
Here's a couple of really interesting links of folks who basically say that what those crazy brits were up to would have almost never brought down a plane. I keep telling everyone I meet about them, so I thought it only fair that I should let others read them:) All of these links are safe for work.
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200608/msg00087.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/14/tatp_about_that_pyro.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/
Given the number of ex-chemical engineers and bio majors that read this blog, I'm really curious what you guys think of these articles.
We had our new car decaled today and it looks even hotter! Take a looky! We named her Sally and we are both in love....
We finally traded in the Jeep and gots us a 2007 Mustang GT!! Mmm Mustang!! It is hot! I am so excited and I must say that I have the best husband in the world for buying it for me. It is a delayed birthday/congrats on the new job/thanks for putting up with Alabama gift. V8 engine...mmm /drool. We ordered a black stripe which will be added later. We had to wait for the stripe to come in. It purrs like a kitten. It makes me hot just thinking about it ;)
So, I have been at my new nursing job for about a month now. The first week was all just the hospital orientation for all nurses. After that I actually got to go to the unit and work with another nurse for unit orientation where I actually got to take care of patients! For those of you that do not know, I am working on the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at U of M Hospital in Ann Arbor. U of M hospital is one of the best hospitals in the nation and is currently number 12 overall and is in the top 25 in the various specialties in US News and World Reports best hospitals issue, so I have quite the ego now because of the prestige that comes with this institution. Our unit specializes in transplants and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) which is something that acts as an outside lung to oxygenate the blood for people with failed hearts and lungs. It can be used while waiting for a new organ or just to give the organs a rest. The MD that used to be the director of our unit and just retired, Dr. Bob Bartlett, invented ecmo. That is pretty cool. Additionally, the EKG was invetnted at U of M hospital so there is a lot of history of medical excellence here! ECMO is a specialized nursing thing that you have to work up too like continuos dialysis (CRRT) which are two things I plan on working up to.
The one thing that I have to get used to is all of the med students, there are a lot of them and they are mostly cute men. I get shy around cute men so I have to work on that. I also had to join a nursing union for the state ($589 a year) which I was handed a 2 inch thick rule book for. Eric and I also cannot have babies for at least 2 years if I want to get paid maternity leave and I want to keep my job. I could in 1 year with the federal law that lets you keep your job for children for a small amount of time and I would still get benefits paid. You would think that a hospital would understand maternity and that they would not call it short term disability! Oh well, that sounds good to me. We can save all of the money I am making now and go on a few more trips before babies come.
I also have to get used to seeing all of the dark blue with the big yellow M's on them. I went to Michigan State University, so it is weird to see our rival colors everywhere. I bought an MSU scrub top, MSU pens and I have an MSU license plate :) This new job has made me realize how childish college rivalries are, ecspecially when some person is a die hard fan and they never went to the school. I don't get why people get so crazy and freaky when the two schools play sports. Here we live in a state with two great universities and we should be rooting for both and their strengths. Fuck sports! Football never saved a persons life or invented a great new cancer drug, which both schools have done with the research they have done. I am officially a fan of both schools and I plan on buying some U of M tops to wear to work and I will wear them proudly;) (Thus concludes my rant...)
Last Friday I had my first almost code. In basic CPR and in nursing you are always taught to remember your abc's, meaning airway, breating and cardio. These go in the order of importance. You need an airway in order to breath and if you do not have breathing, no sense in helping the heart if the blood is not being oxygenated. Anyways, my preceptor and I had a patient with a very delicate airway and was on a ventilator. Let's just say that the airway was lost because her trachea collapsed so I saw her oxygenation numbers dropping and they finally had to slice open her neck and give her a tracheostomy. They started it there at the bedside to get her air and then we had to rush her to the Operating Room. It was very exciting and my adrenaline was pumping. I was new so I just ran for things the docs needed. It all worked out in the end though and she made it through. I love the ICU!!
I bought Sue a treadmill for her birthday, which I have been using to run 2 miles everyday. Today was the first day I notice that my stomach is just a smidgen tighter. Sweetness! And that’s not the only dividend: Let’s just say that Sue noticed a difference in my stamina;)
My eventual goal is to get back to being able to run a mile in under 8 minutes like I could in high school. I’m at roughly ten minutes right now, so still a ways off. Previous runners, any ideas on how I should be structuring these runs? Currently I pretty much just run at the same comfortable speed until my sides are burning, then I walk until it stops. Repeat until I get to two miles. I have to imagine there is a better system out there.
Little piece of advice for the male readers: Do NOT buy your woman a treadmill (or any piece of exercise equipment for that matter) unless she specifically asks for it. Sue came in the door on her birthday from work, saw the treadmill, and decided to screw with me by blurting out, "What are you saying? You think I'm FAT?!?!?!". I'm sure she wishes she had a picture of that deer in headlights moment:) Lucky for me she then immediately laughed and reminded me that she had been asking for one for months. Otherwise it is entirely possible I would still be standing there with my brain stuck in neutral trying to think of anything to say :)
I forgot I had not posted these pics before.
Update: Added 6 more pictures from another roll of film.
Random little stuff:
1) I just finished Steven D. Levitt's and Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics, which is a really fascinating book about using economic theory to tease out all sorts of interesting facts about the world around us. If you get a chance, I would highly recommend it.
2) Man, I just love the news coverage of Mel Gibson. The guy tells a cop, "F---ing Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Then the next day in a statement he says, "There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark." Great! So if I decide to refer to you as a prick and think you are an evil, evil man, it'll be ok with you? Thanks!
And then having the balls to say "'I am not an anti-Semite". Really? Cause I am almost certain that the definition of anti-semite is when you say things like, "F---ing Jews". What an Ass hole.
So, this is a funny picture and a fun story (no surprise, but alcohol was involved)
Sue and I were bored last Saturday night (after seeing Wicked, the cool musical in NYC that afternoon), so we decided to go to our Gym's member appreciation party to sate our love of free food. The theme was Mardi Gras and it was supposed to be at the outdoor pool, but somehow it ended up being in their basketball court (way too prom-like depressing, if you ask me). We get there and are pleased to find open bar for beer and wine, but mostly depressing older people packed in to the space. The DJ is predictably lame, so we decide to slam one or two, get some dinner and get out of there. Semi-cool is the person on stilts with long pants who is making balloon hats and animals for the adults (no kids allowed at party). After her second glass of wine, Sue suggests we get some hats before leaving. I'm a bit buzzed too, so I agree and ask the balloon lady to make me "anything w/ horns, viking, devil, bull, I don't care." (wanted to say, "I'm horny tonight," but didn't want to make the hired entertainer uncomfortable). She gives me a contemptuous look, but goes ahead w/ her version of a viking hat (below). Sue asks for whatever she wants to make and gets a cool twisty snork (remember the snorks!?) thing.
We proceed to get many compliments from party goers on our hats, even though I keep hitting ppl cause my damn horns stick straight out to the side (Sidenote: 10 min later the DJ plays the lame electric slide, but the highlight was seeing the chick in stilts doing it too!)
We ditch the party and decide to go to blockbuster and have "Hot chicks kick ass movie night" renting Aeon Flux (a'ight) and Ultraviolet (bit lame), but wear the hats inside the store. Made the clerk laugh and that was worth it enough for me.
In life, you have to make your own fun (but not your own balloon hats)
ps - as an added bonus, feel free to make this a "caption this picture contest" =)
pps - note the chic plastic stars sue stuck on her temples she got from the party
I received the following spam email today. It was amusing enough that I felt the need to share:
One of our agents has been trying to contact you regarding your home.We have some awesome news. Although it has taken some time, our agent havefound 0 companys that are able to r e f i n a n c e for you.
Good lord I am drunk. I'm in bed at the hotel watching something on some channel that is really funny. I really wish I knew what channel I was watching and what time it is. The show is about the fact that chicks do not like being called a cunt. And in a way that is completely beyond me, they are making it really funny:)
I'M DRUNK!
They just said what channel I am on: HBO. And the show is Lucky Louie. Just so everyone knows, that show is hilarious!
Drinking with the boss is awesome. Gambling with the boss, not so much. I lost a bunch at some Indian casino here in Wausau.
I'm too drunk to write a good rambling blog.
JACK DANIELS! GOOD!
Fox news is depressing. Time to change the channel back to something fun.
Nothing on worth watching. I give up. Time to give up and go to sleep. Sorry for the lack of any point.
Apparently my egotistical rantings about how you either are great at software programming or not was not just my ego talking. According to this PHD paper, a group of researchers have come up with pretty simple test that can weed out the (and I swear their PHD paper actually includes this line), "programming sheep from non-programming goats."
Basically, they decided that there are three models that people need to be able to conceptualize:
They claim that even good programmers have great difficultly getting a good model of concurrency (which I will attest is one of the most difficult concepts to wrap your head around in CS). But they also claim that simply testing students for a mental model of assignment and sequence before they ever see a single programming book is an excellent predictor of CS aptitude. For example, this is the very first question on their test:
Read the following statements and tick the box next to the correct answer.
int a = 10;
int b = 20;
a = b;
The new values of a and b are:
[ ] a = 20 b = 0
[ ] a = 20 b = 20
[ ] a = 0 b = 10
[ ] a = 10 b = 10
[ ] a = 30 b = 20
[ ] a = 30 b = 0
[ ] a = 10 b = 30
[ ] a = 0 b = 30
[ ] a = 10 b = 20
[ ] a = 20 b = 10
As someone who does this for a living, I have trouble believing anyone could get this wrong (the correct answer is (2) by the way). Yet when these UK researchers ran their students through a set of questions like this, fully 39% would fail the test. 39%! And weirdly the things you would expect to affect this, like overall intelligence, GPA, or access to computers has absolutely no effect on this number! Its almost like the good programmers are different not because we are smarter, but because we have a natural ability at creating consistent models of machine logic. Moreover, this number appeared to the researchers to be very difficult to move. Even after 3 weeks of tutoring, "there is very little movement from consistent to inconsistent". That is, either you have a consistent model of assignment, or it is very likely you will never have one!
Ok, all well and good so far. But it begs several questions
Sue and I hate cleaning. We hate it with a passion. So anything that can help us reduce the number of times we have to clean anything in the house is just plain awesome in our book. Enter our newest bathroom contraption:
Mac Ad Spoofs
Safe for work as long as you have some headphone:)
I know that lately all my blog is good for is links to other people being funny. However, I am once again jet setting to some fabulous destination for work next week (Wisconsin!). So rest assured that I will make some sort of wildly personal, angry, and bitter post next week based on the Wheel of Rambling (tm) while in nothing but my boxers from a hotel room in the midwest at 3:00 in the morning (just like every other trip!).
Paul and Sue Pics!
Pictures from the party start at the seventh picture in the series.
ABC News: New Cell Can Tell If You're Drunk
I love this additional feature that the engineers thought to add:
The LP4100 also allows users to set up the phone so on certain nights and after a certain time they do not call certain people in their phone book. Think ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend.
If you have a blood alcohol level over .08, the phone will not let you dial that person. So it not only promotes sobriety, but chastity - and probably your dignity, as well.
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