Last night UVA sponsored an event for all of the students whereby they invite some musical act to come and perform at John Paul Jones Arena for anyone with a UVA ID, and I thought that I would give it a shot since it was free and my initial screening of the act didn't seem like a bad idea. Oh, and the guy's name was DJ Girl Talk(did I mention this whole event was free?). He does this mashup thing whereby he does some interesting mixes of music from entirely different genres. It's hard to really describe and can only be defined once you hear it yourself, but I figured I would at least like half of his stuff if there was music that I recognized mixed in there.
So when we get there, I think I was damn near the oldest student there amidst a sea of 18 -21 year olds. I was just not in the mood to deal with the huge onslaught of kids bumping into each other trying to make their way through the arena aisles and into their seats or onto the floor. I guess this wasn't a problem at first, but I found that I didn't have the energy to mingle with kids the way I used to when I was their age. It's as if I just didn't care any more. Just another sign I was getting old and feeling insecure about it when surrounded by youngsters.
The first hour was us sitting around waiting for stuff to happen and basically watching people around us slowly fill in the seats and floor. The second hour was us sitting around as several UVA acapella groups and dance troupes did their acts on the stage. The third hour after that was initially some UVA athletics folks talking about their sports programs, but then the main event finally came on-line. It was... interesting. DJ Girl Talk did an interesting fusion of old and new with a lot of new stuff I didn't recognize, but I was able to geezer out on the old stuff like Michael Jackson and Bananarama. There was one transition point where he was mixing into a Wu-Tang Clan song called "C.R.E.A.M." which was a clever acronym for "cash rules everything around me" and what I relate as the reason for current urban culture's usage of the word "cream" as another word for money. Anyways, the crowd was always really vibrant with a song that they recognized, but as soon I heard the C.R.E.A.M. beat and the words "I grew up..." the whole crowd slowed(including the guys with me) a little as if there was something completely foreign coming on. That was when I knew that I was probably one of a handful of people in the arena who knew what the song was.
I was initially a little sad that I was one of the very few old folks who knew, but then I realized that these kids were listening to a lot of really bad rap and hip-hop that's out there now so they really had no idea where the copycats of today got their influence from. So, needless to say the night ended a little early after that, but at least I got a free t-shirt out of all of it. Older, wiser, and free t-shirt. Excellent.
The pool can be a dangerous place: Kids can get sunburned or slip on the wet deck. But can the pool get you pregnant?
Magdalena Kwiatkowska of Poland thinks you can. She is suing an Egyptian hotel because she claims her 13-year-old daughter became impregnated after swimming in its pool during their recent holiday. Ms.Kwiatkowska says that there must have been errant sperm floating around just waiting to implant themselves in an unsuspecting female taking a dip. She swears that her daughter did not meet any boys during their vacation, so the mysterious sperm in the pool had to be the culprit.
Surely this lawsuit will be thrown out of court on inconceivable (pun intended) grounds. First off, wouldn't the chlorine kill any random sperm? But even further, did Ms. Kwiatkowska follow every moment of her vacationing daughter to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she spent absolutely no time with anyone of the opposite sex during their Egyptian holiday?
The only reassuring thing about this story, perhaps, is that frivolous lawsuits are not exclusively an American thing.
One of the big lessons I learned on Peds was that parents can be unreasonable jerks sometimes and I can only hope to maintain some semblance of rationality when I have kids and deal with their other doctors. This story further reinforces that promise to myself. I can understand why a parent would be upset that their child got knocked up, but come on. You can't be seriously wasting people's time or be in that much psychotic denial.
It also reminded me why I couldnt do pediatrics. I love kids, but I hated dealing with some of the "normal" parents. Interestingly enough though, I love dealing with the mentally ill and have tons of patience for that patient population. Go figure.
Last Updated on Saturday, 26 September 2009 20:57
youtuberepeat
Written by Steven Sust
Thursday, 09 July 2009 19:08
For those of you who are as stingy as I am, I found this site that has an interesting service.
It's called Youtuberepeat and it's pretty cool for those of you who like to listen to songs on repeat for hours on end.
It also happens to have something called dropplay which apparently might allow you to pull multiple vids off of youtube and make a playlist out of it?
I havent had the chance to try it because I have had Rod Stewart on repeat for the last few hours as I steel myself for the next night of EM.
Speaking of which...
This is one of those rare instances when I think a cover is better than an original.
"If you're wondering what I'm asking in return, dear, you'll be glad to know that my demands are small..."
Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2009 19:21
Mama's rules
Written by Steven Sust
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 21:39
At emergency medicine journal club, we talked about a bunch of articles, but there was one in particular that really changes the way I am going to practice later on in my life. The article is called "Mama's Rules" and it basically reproduces the author's speech which he delivered to Emory's 2008 school of medicine class. In it, the author tries to render some perspective on the 4 years of med school madness and re-iterates that some of the most important lessons had already been taught to us long before we came to medical school.
In order to illustrate this point, the author recalls an incident where a homeless patient who had been discharged after orthopedic surgery literally dragged himself into the ER, clearly couldnt take care of himself and his wounds, and was showing initial signs of wound infection so orthopedic surgery was brought down to re-evaluate the patient. Unfortunately, the ortho resident did his evaluation, found no surgical emergency, stated that orthopedic surgery didnt admit patients they werent going to operate on tomorrow morning, and suggested calling the general medicine resident to take over care of the patient. Needless to say, arguments ensued between emergency medicine resident + ortho resident + general medicine resident over whose burden it was to take care of the patient(who could totally hear these guys arguing in the ER).
Finally, an ER attending walked over to the argument and suggested that ortho take the patient, but ortho resident again refused and repeated his reasons. Then the ER attending refused to argue any further, ordered the ortho resident to pick up the phone, and the resident asked if he wanted to speak to the ortho attending. The ER attending said "no" and instead wanted the ortho resident to call his mother. He challenged the ortho resident to explain the situation to his mother and try to convince his mother that his plan of action for this patient was the right thing to do.
You'll have to read the rest of the article to get how it ends, but this really floored me because we're all often caught up in this sort of mindset. The author even cautions us to remember that all physicians will be on either side of this issue in our careers and it''s important to keep some perspective plus moral directive inside of ourselves when the business model of medicine is trying to suck out our last bits of soul.
