Dare I try again?

Well this blog has been sitting idle for over a year now and it may seem a little silly to just pick up where I left off.  But, I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.  This was always a space for me to share what I was thinking as I'm on life's path and I can see no reason to change that.

Perhaps it's because I've been in a more reflective mood of late that I've wanted to write things down.  I've found myself journaling more.  My e-mails and conversations with my friends have been longer and of more substance than usual.  So, we'll give it a try - at one time I had a pretty regular routine going on this blog and I'll see if I can't match that again.  We're getting into the spring and summer times, which are my favorite of the year.  We've got a sad anniversary, travel for work and play, family milestones, and newsworthy events all in store in the next few months.  Let's see how it goes!

Best in Show

I've been watching most of the new TV series over the past two weeks (thanks mostly to my TiVo). While there have been some good shows, I think my favorite so far is Brothers and Sisters (Sundays at 10PM, ABC). I'm not a Calista Flockhart fan, but combined with Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths and the rest of the talented cast - you quickly forget her Ally McBeal character. The show - at least so far - is all about the relationships between family members. I'm sure we can all relate to familial disfunction and this show hits the nail on the head. It's not just a feel-good show, which is what draws me to it. They are real people with real problems and for the most part, they have no clue on how to deal with those problems. There's only been two episodes, so hopefully ABC won't turn this into some melodrama and ruin the genuiness of the characters...

So yeah - check it out, Sunday at 10pm. My other picks so far - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (although, Aaron Sorkin - you could have at least made the show look different than The West Wing) and Jerico. Still on the Fence: The Class, Smith, Kidnapped. Haven't gotten around to watching yet: Shark, Ugly Betty, Men in Trees. On it's way out: Six Degrees (Friday Night Lights, The Nine and 30 Rock still to premiere)

Something to look forward to

I'm very excited about the new addition to my home entertainment system that should arrive tomorrow. It came to my attention recently that you don't need a phone line to have a TiVo unit, but can use an internet connection instead. Even better, you can get a WiFi adapter, so you don't have to run any cables. So once I found out about the WiFi option (and realized TiVo was still cheaper than getting Digital Cable and DVR), I signed right up. I'm really excited about the opportunity to digitally record all of my favorite shows and to record "live" TV. It should get a workout with the College Football season in full swing and the new season of shows starting next week. Stay tuned, I'm sure you'll hear more about it in the next few weeks.

How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger

Alright, this is a bit different for me. And it's ironic that I'm placing this material on my blog. Today, I noticed a unqiue link on my Google homepage. Under my "How To" section, there was a link to "How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger." So I checked it out - it was humorous (and sadly, mostly true). So, I thought I'd give the folks at wikiHow some exposure...

What a buzz all the bloggers are making these days! It seems like just about everybody is pouring their musings into a text box. Are you feeling tempted to start a blog of your own? Here are some ways to bypass the trend.
Steps

STEPS

1. Find five completely random blogs, and read them daily for a month. After thirty days, you will absolutely dread your self-imposed requirement to read all that dreck. Any blog you create will most likely be on par with what you've been reading. Don't put anyone through that.

2. Consider that your voice, even if it is truly a good one, is a tiny peep against the massive wave of tripe out there. The odds of anyone you don't already know finding your blog are low.

3. Write on a regular basis in Wordpad instead. If that doesn't satisfy your urge, and you feel that you must post your blog online, then you might just be craving attention and validation--which you'll never truly find in a blog. If you give up on your Wordpad journal after about three days, you'll do the same with a blog that just takes up server space.

4. Ask yourself if you really have the time to commit to a blog. What about that treehouse you wanted to build? Or the book you wanted to write? Or the car you wanted to fix up? Or the restaurant you wanted to take your wife to? Or the new career you wanted to pursue? Instead of writing about pretty much nothing, or whining about all the things you wish you were doing instead, start doing something that'd actually be worth writing about. And if it's really worth writing about, you'll be having too much fun doing it to tear yourself away from it.


TIPS

* If attention and validation are what you're looking for, know that you will get neither from blogging. As above, very few people will ever know that your blog (or you, by proxy) exists. The remainder of comments posted to your blog will be sappy treacle, which you won't trust as being sincere anyway.

* Consider writing on a wiki instead. Unlike most blogs, wikis like Wikipedia and wikiHow are read by millions of people each month. Several wikiHow authors receive "fan mail" messages every day from appreciative readers. In addition, many authors discover that they enjoy the wiki collaborative writing process more than writing in solitude.


WARNINGS

* The information you post on the Internet is likely to linger for years and years to come, as web pages are archived by "snapshot" services like the Wayback Machine. Once it's out there, you can't take it back. An employer running a Google search on your name years down the line might be turned off by your now documented obsession with your cat.


You can link to the article here

Where were you?

It was one of those moments in history. One of those moments that people everywhere - across this nation and this world - remember where they were when they heard. September 11, 2001 changed us, changed me. As I was reflecting on that terrible day that happened just 5 years ago, I have a crisp memory of my day - well most of it. I remember waking up that morning in my apartment on Northview Drive. I was running late as usual - I had O-Chem lab in Davidson Hall at 9:00 AM. I remember watching a bit of the Today show before I hurried my way to my white neon (which had yet to be nicknamed "Love Wheels") and scurried off on the 2 mile drive to Virginia Tech. I remember parking and noticing that I had 7 minutes to get to class - yes, it was 8:53 AM when I got out of my car and I didn't have a clue about what had happened already. I would be in basement of Davidson Hall for 3 hours without any knowledge of the horrors that had happened to our country. I clearly remember when I first heard anything about what had happened. My friend Jessica and I were walking across the drillfield on a bright and sunny day. We were off to meet some friends at the Hokie Grill for lunch as we did every Tuesday. Almost exactly halfway across the drillfield, another friend, Tiffany stopped us and asked if we had heard about the bombing of the World Trade Center. She didn't have much information and we still had no idea of the gravity of the day. It wasn't until we made it inside the dining center when we saw the smoke and devastation on the big screen television that I realized what had happened. I had class pretty soon so I walked across campus to McBryde 123 for Econ. I quickly found that classes had been cancelled. I made my way to my office in the ISE department, right across the parking lot. The staff had found a television and was glued to the coverage. I remember sitting in the conference room and watching Tom Brokaw try to explain what had happened. I didn't stay long. I needed to be alone to process everything that was happening. I made it back to my apartment on Northview Drive just after 1pm. After that, I don't really remember the rest of my day. It was just me and the NBC news team for I don't know how long. I know at some point I was finally able to get in touch with my family to make sure my cousins weren't in Manhattan that morning (they weren't).

The point is that I would wager that my experience is typical of many others'. You can remember the point up to which you learned about the tragedy. But what about after that point? Yes, I remember the images and some things on the news broadcasts, but I can't tell you how long I watched or if I did anything that day.

I said that I know that 9/11 changed me. Yet, the one question that I find most difficult to answer is "How did 9/11 change me?" I'm not sure that I will ever be able to articulate an answer to that question. I know that it did - but I can't put into words what that change is. When I think about it, I'm pretty sure that any changes started in those blurred hours that I can't remember. As I learned about the mass destruction, the incredible bravery displayed by so many, and the hate that caused the tragedy - I was changed. My perception of the world changed. I was 19 years old and realized my life would never be the same.

For 9/11/06 - 5 years from now, I hope that my memory of that morning is as vivid as it is today.

One good thing about the end of summer...

It's not a secret that summer is my favorite time of year. I revel in the heat and the sun (ok, I could deal without the humidity, but oh well). I love all the activities that come with summertime - time at the river, the lake, or the beach among the ones I enjoy the most.

However, fall is not without it's highlights. Probably the one that sticks out most in my mind is that it marks the start of the College Football Season. Ahh, just thinking about all those games makes me smile. Of course, I'll be pretty worthless on Saturdays for the next 3-4 months. Oh well, that's the price you pay. What amazes me is how many games you can see/hear over one weekend. For instance, today - I'm watching the Michigan/Vanderbilt Game on my television (and I could have flipped over to 2 other games) AND I'm watching my Virginia Tech Hokies romp Northeastern on ESPN360 on my computer. So in honor of the start of the CFB season, I'll tip my hat to my team:

Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi
Tech, Tech, VPI
Sola-rex, Sola-rah
Polytechs Virginia
Rae, Ri, VPI
Team, Team, Team!

New Feature

Quick note - Since I am quite the healthcare nerd, I decided I would put some links to my favorite healthcare-related blogs over in the sidebar to the right. If you get a chance, check some of them out. For those of you not in the field - Surgeonsblog and Emergiblog have some good perspective on the clinical side. And Grand Rounds highlights the best posts of the week from all over the blogosphere...

The "other" side of my job...

One of the things that I think is great about the Health Administration program at VCU is that they really try to expose us to the actual medical side of medicine. Too often, health administration programs - and sadly, many hospital administrators - forget that medicine actually happens in hospitals.

A blog post by Dr. Schwab over at Surgeonsblog really moved me the other day. Physicians are given a bad rap with healthcare administrators because they are usually mad at us for not giving them something (which typically would help our patients) or we are mad at them because they won't change to help us. That's really not the M.O. of most physcians, it's just that administrators are exposed to that most often. I'd bet that even those of you not in the healthcare field forget what it takes to be a physician most days. For some really interesting reading, I'd recommend you check out the book Complications. I'm sure you'll be surprised.

But for now, just check out Dr. Schawb's post. The most telling part of the whole thing:

There's something completely wrong about a tiny baby on a big table in a huge OR. I could cover the entire person with my two hands. All the machinery, the tools, the drapes, the surrounding team seem terrifyingly outsized. It's like a joke. We're playing dolls. Except it's real and the stakes are high.