"I'm Mr. Krabs. I like money!"

so having now been a surgical PA for a full year and change, the BHE and i are reaping all the benefits of our inflated combined salary. it's been mostly magically delicious since we've been able to aggressively pay off my loans, go on some great vacations, work on the house, and donate to charities.

but we did our taxes this morning and i think we put all of uncle sam's kids through college last year with what we paid in. oh, well. at least we'll get some help with retirement when that time comes....right? right? guys? hello? anyone?

anyway...we found that we are officially evil white rich people. there was even a stamp that came on my W2 that said "EWRP."

so for every additional dollar we earn, we get to keep an increasingly small part of it. good times.

i guess i don't really mind being an EWRP. but i'm gathering that also being a DINK (dual income, no kids) isn't a good plan. i guess i've come up with another reason to start squirting out some kids. they're not just good for mowing the lawn and mixing drinks. they can also be adorable little tax breaks. hmmm...

What Do the Cure for Autism and Fake Boobs Have in Common?

jenny mccarthy, of course!

she's long been the celebrity spokesperson claiming that vaccines are to blame for autism. she has a son with autism and has started her own resource center which, incidentally, sounds pretty awesome.

what isn't awesome is the scare tactics and rumors employed by her campaign. the autism-vaccine connection has been debunked, but forget what research has found, forget the recommendations by medical governing bodies, you should trust this mom instead. because she just knows. and she's famous...so you ought to listen.

i already talked about the vaccination debate a while ago, but this article on her claims and efforts and how they don't jive at all with scientific findings popped up this week and i decided to reopen the subject.

Since They Don't Pay Me to Watch Movies....

great day at work. i've been really enjoying it lately. i'm attempting to be more useful by learning some new stuff.

i'm now doing feeding tube placements where, for patients who are unable to eat, we place a long thin tube down the nose, through the esophagus and the stomach and with a GPS-like tracking device, we aim to get the tip into the small intestine. although we are using numbing lubricant, this is about as unpleasant as it sounds and often results in bloody noses and patients gagging and cursing us the whole while. it's hard to do (i didn't go into this to torture people, i swear!) but by the time they order this tube, these patients are often wasting away and desperately need the nutrition. that's what we try to remember...although i was helping with one a while ago and the patient (in a thick eastern block accent) kept asking us "what deed i ahver do toh yoh?" good question, buddy.

..also i'm learning (finally, again) to do peripherally inserted central catheters which is an IV line placed in an upper arm vein that tracks to larger and larger veins up the arm and finally lands in one of the veins that feeds into the heart. we use PICC's for long-term antibiotics or for patients who will require IV access for a long time- things like TPN (total parenteral nutrition), etc. we use an ultrasound to find the veins and to watch our placement and then snake in a guide wire before placing the catheter in. it's pretty neat. we do it at bed side and we're able to get a lot done without much disruption to the patients. in interventional radiology when they do one they use sort of moving xray picture so they can see exactly where the tip of the wire is, if it coils, if it goes up the neck instead of down toward the heart, etc. we have to trust the fuzzy ultrasound and our "feel" that it's in the right place (obviously, must be able to draw blood from it and flush saline through it to show it's at least functional) and then we confirm which vein it's in by xray afterwards.

so even though it's february and OR case load is down, i've been staying busy and enjoying the new challenges.

and so far nobody at work in this weight loss competition has started a riot or anything, but i've been hearing a lot of grumbling. paczki day came and went and most people refrained with difficulty. my own weight loss efforts with this crazy diet are sort of meh. energy level still good, but i'm tired of all the food prep and some of the food still tastes like dirty cardboard. just a few more weeks until the half marathon, then we'll ease off a bit.

cheers!

ACADEMY AWARD MANIA!!!

alright, sports fans. here is the list of the 2010 Academy Award Best Picture Nominees. this year i swear. I SWEAR! i am going to see them all and make my predictions before Oscar Night (march 7). the only one i might intentionally bow out on is "push" because it just sounds too hard to watch and i try to avoid movies that wreck me inside and haunt me for days afterward. i've read a lot about it, though, and i think i get a feel for its strengths.

anyway...as always, read my review of the films on the column to your right (unless you're looking at your monitor from behind the computer? then it would be to your left). i will also keep this list up to date with my predictions and thoughts. (in case you care). (you totally know you do).

• “Avatar” - seen it and think it should win for cinematography and art direction, visual effects and maybe even director...but the story and characters and PURPOSE of it were lacking too much for it to win as best pic. But count me not surprised if it does end up winning.
  
• “The Blind Side”- missed (but looks like a made-for-tv movie. just sayin')
  
• “District 9”- missed (have it here from netflix but never got to watch- sigh)
  
• “An Education”- missed (like "the reader" but w/o the nazi's?)
  
• “The Hurt Locker”- scripted but filmed like a documentary. very anxiety-inducing and believable as you follow an American IED squad as they risk life and limb trying to disarm explosives in Iraq. not preachy or melodramatic like a lot of war movies. great characters, cinematography and feel...but not grandiose like the others. kind of simple and to the point, which might not be enough zsa zsa zsu for the oscars.
  
• “Inglourious Basterds”- seen it and think it should win for costumes (though can't since not nominated), maybe original screenplay, maybe cinematography, but def not best pic. it couldn't land on the style it wanted to be and was just sort of long and sloppy. And didn't really feel like Tarantino to me, except for a few random moments.
  
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
  
• “A Serious Man”- Coen brothers and their dark world where people suck and luck is bad. The "luck" in this movie is in the form of a curse on the generations of a Jewish family, and how it effects the life of one especially sad sack man. Beautifully shot movie with some moments that would make insanely awesome photographs. Plus the editing, the acting and the script were all really well done. (Except the wife- wasn't crazy about her performance. Just have to put that out there). It doesn't quite have the twisted shock and depravity of "Fargo" or the vastness and viciousness of "NCFOM" but it's a very well put together, satisfying movie. But I don't think it will win.
• “Up” -seen it and think it should def win for animated feature film and maybe music. this movie had it all. it was brilliant animation, fully developed characters and story and just a lot of fun and heart. i don't think this could possibly actually win since it's a cartoon and has talking dogs in it, but that it's nominated gives me some hope in american cinema.
• “Up in the Air”- cool movie. I think this one should win (of the ones I've seen so far). Very cleverly constructed and executed. Thought-provoking and not overly sentimental. Didn't dwell on the heart break scenes, but didn't make nice either. I loved it.
  

..oh, and by all means, PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS IF YOU'VE SEEN ANY OF THE FILMS.

So What's Your Beef with the Beef?

as a vegetarian of 13 years, i have had to field a lot of questions on why i don't eat meat and how i get the precious meat vitamins without it. people have even pointed to my incisors and say, "you see, we're meant to be carnivores." and now on this new wacky vegan diet, people are even more curious about how we're not wasting away as little anemic waifs.

through my years of vegetarianism i have found ample health and social reasons why it's better that i don't eat meat. below, i'll do a quick down and dirty synopsis of the health and social reasons why i don't eat beef. (i'm focusing more on beef, since poultry and fish don't have a lot of the same dramatic consequences...and i do recognize that eating in moderation does improve things, but you'll see what a small quantity "moderate" is). and i'm really not going to preach at you or anything- by all means, enjoy your burger... but here's some food for thought. :)

Health:
-Pro's of eating beef: great source of iron, B12, and protein.
-Con's of eating beef: -increased risk for colon cancer, increased risk of heart disease and early death (note that vegetarians apparently live 7 yrs longer and vegans 15 yrs longer than meat-eating counterparts)

Social:
-animal cruelty (this is unpleasant. you've been warned), 22 million animals are slaughtered daily for people to eat them
-we could feed the world if we stopped putting the majority of our grain/soy into feeding the animals we eat
-lots of ground water pollution and grossness from the waste products of said animals


so that's a very brief and in-comprehensive summary of why i choose to be a vegetarian. i kind of got bored there toward the end. the internet is rife with good info and also a lot of crazy propaganda on the subject, so as you do your own research, be careful.

if you're curious about where i get the meaty vitamins as a veg, i'll tell you... Iron= beans, green leafy vegetables (note: iron is best absorbed if combined w/ foods containing Vitamin C), B12= if not vegan- dairy and eggs, if vegan- nutritional yeast and fortified products, Protein= beans, tofu, and nuts. and unlike meat, these all contain all kinds of other nutrients as well.

but...after all that, if it's the flavor of the juicy red meat you just can't live without...i can't really help you there.

:) toodles for now.