Every day I'm coming home with interesting stories. Unfortunately there's a problem. While I suppose some of this stuff would make great blog material. But the entry would have to read like this:
"So at work one day I had this patient and he had this condition. It was pretty bizarre because he got it doing something somewhere. Since he didn't come in for a week we had to do this procedure. But he's doing well now and once we do something else he can probably go home."
The federal government has some very strict rules in place regarding privacy of patients and what goes on in a medical setting. So in order to follow HIPAA I can't really talk about what goes on at work. Yes, I'm exaggerating a little bit. I can talk about things as long as I'm very careful to include nothing that can identify the person...and unfortunately for publishing on the internet that's a lot of detail to weed out.
What's it all mean? If you want to hear some interesting stories...and if you aren't terribly squeemish...and you're willing to come over to my house for dinner then maybe, just maybe, I can edit down my day into something I can legally talk about.
But I won't promise anything. It was a heck of a day.
Posted on January 30, 2007 @ 9:27 PM | 4 comments
Comments:
As long as you have only one identifier, you should be ok. So, a "male with a heart attack" would be ok... but "a 16-year-old male with a heart attack" would not.
Of course, low-incidence diseases could be considered identifiable (as a single identifier) in some situations. But, most diseases would not.
By 
Cory, at
9:32 PM, January 31, 2007
hey justin - would like to hear more about your week... u make dinner (after the long week) -- i bring the wine for us all... dinner, music, laughs, us n guitar hero. LOL!!
By 
, at
11:04 PM, January 31, 2007
Cory, you're right that I could probably talk about my clients to a certain extent. I have though already said where I worked this quarter and given the nature of the internet I don't like the chance that someone could read this blog (however unlikely) and say "Hey...my mom just had a heart attack and is at HMC!"
Further, the parts I really would like to talk about aren't the injury itself. Sure, it's ok for me to say that I took care of a patient with a head wound. But that's drab. It would be more interesting for me to say I took care of a patient with a self inflicted head wound from a wood chipper. And really...how many people are there at HMC with head wounds from wood chippers?
Sadly I have some pretty unique cases (did I just say "sadly"...that's like asking to deal with cold and flu all next quarter)...with interesting detail (a) and the location (b) I bet you could pick my patients out of a lineup if they lived in your community :)
By Justin, at
9:37 AM, February 02, 2007
You know, the wood chipper example above is, if I may say, pretty freekin awesome. So awesome, that I would like to suggest that Justin entertain us and share his work stories in the following way:
Replace ALL the details. So YOU'LL know it's a self-inflicted head wound via wood chipper, but you could say bear-inflicted neck wound via batleth instead. See? We'd all win. ;)
But we did our 8 miles at near the same pace we've been jogging, even though both of our energy levels were flagging. With luck and practice, we'll be able to keep it up. This weekend is supposed to be a shorter run, before we jump into the high numbers on alternate weekends, and I may make it a *touch* longer just to keep racking up distance.
We've got our plane tickets for Amsterdam at the end of March and I just now realized this means we'll be doing one very long run along the dikes of the Dutch countryside. Well, I can't complain. As long as the weather cooperates, it will be beautiful and very scenic-- they've got a great warren of bike paths we can use to our advantage. Alls I have to do is use Wayfaring to plot the route on a Google map. Funny thing is, the last time we ran 19 miles for training, we were in Glacier National Park. We must be destined to run the 19-er in exotic locales!
We had a very busy weekend besides running-- dinner Friday AND Saturday with friends, shoe shopping on Saturday afternoon, saw Eleanor perform at a recital in Wallingford yesterday, and watched two movies... Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men. Pan's Labyrinth was interesting, but not as strong as I'd hoped. Children of Men was really good. I've got the same complaints as the critics, but I could have kept on watching for at least an hour more. Sadly, as a by-product of movies and shoe shopping I'm now broke, so I must sit on my ass until I get paid on Thursday. Hurrah. :)
Posted on January 29, 2007 @ 10:00 AM | 1 comments
Comments:
Long run in Amsterdam. That doesn't sound so bad.
The thing is, I want to play well I really do. And I'm sure if I kept at it long enough and made it pretty much my sole hobby (which means tossing out watching House, American Idol, and Mythbusters) I could teach myself. But I just don't have that kind of perseverance. So today I took the initiative and walked myself down to Dusty Strings in Fremont to sign up for some lessons.
To those in the area who have never ventured into Dusty Strings, I say wait no longer! It's an acoustic music-lover's paradise! All sorts of stringed, fluted, and drummable-instruments to play with, books, accessories, CDs, you name it. They have lutes for Chrissakes, LUTES! And nice ones, too!
They've set up a reference station for would-be musicians in search of lessons. I thumbed through the guitar section but gravitated immediately to the flier for a man who was working the front counter. As another staffperson walked by, he confirmed my thoughts with a recommendation and introduced us. I talked to him for a while and signed up for my first lesson, next Thursday after work.
I admit that he was cooler and somehow less friendly and more teacherly than I expected. I suppose this makes sense, as he's taking me on as a student, but it wasn't helped by the fact that I'm flat-out terrified! I've always loved learning by taking classes but at some point along the line I must've developed a deep-seated fear of music lessons. Oy. I suppose I can thank my parents for forcing piano recitals upon me and thank myself for pretty awful vocal lessons when I was trying to force my alto voice into a soprano range. Oh yeah, and let's not forget one MISERABLY failed clarinet solo in middle school. Ugh.
But despite all that, I do love music and I desperately want to get back into it. I'll have to kick my old phobia in the butt and grow a new appreciation for music teachers now that I'm taking the initiative to use my own time and my own money to learn. It's very different for me to decide that I want to learn guitar from some dude in Ballard than for my parents to ship me off to my piano teacher's house every week, kicking and screaming. Like I said, though, it gets my heart racing just thinking about it! Eep! Time to practice!
(See? I'm motivated already.)
Posted on January 25, 2007 @ 2:58 PM | 6 comments
Comments:
Heh, I remember that clarinet solo...sorry sorry ;)
Way to take the initiative kat! I've been mulling over the thought about signing up for violin lessons again. But I myself have a fear of music lessons, especially for violin. And then I'd have to settle with the fact that my youngest sister will probably always be better than me...
By , at
4:39 PM, January 25, 2007
I have to say that is the first blog I have ever read that professed any excitement about lutes.
By running42k, at
1:06 PM, January 26, 2007
What is it that you fear about the music lessons?
By Rachel, at
2:13 PM, January 28, 2007
Nothing like motivation through crippling fear!!
By Lazy Lightning, at
6:49 AM, January 29, 2007
Allie- Justin and I attended Eleanor's recital this weekend. She is really good!
Running42k- Dude, lutes are RAD! What can I say, I grew up around baroque music and renaissance faires. :)
Rachel- I think it's the one-on-one time with a stranger listening to me struggle with music. It's a struggle that's really personal to me and I always find it strange to share it with someone I don't know, even if they're there to help. Most of the fear is a lingering childhood embarrassment though. ;)
LL- Yeehaw!
By Kat, at
9:50 AM, January 29, 2007
Dusty Strings is indeed great.
Trading Musician (just N. of the U-Distr) has a great "acoustic instr." room. AMAZING collection of (mostly used!) collectible and quirky electric guitars, at very reasonable prices, as well.
Avoid Lark in the Morning (near Pike Place Market) -- waaay dissapointing. Bought a Chinese Moon Lute (a ''Yuet-Chin'') there a few years ago. Neither store clerk knew anything about it, but tried to B.S. me (which a quick Google search later disproved), and the build quality of most of their instruments is for wall decoration, not actually playing.
--GG
I guess comparing ALA to SES is like apples and oranges, especially because I've only been to one of each-- but from my limited observations, I have to give mad props to the library folks for putting on a good show. ALA midwinter is eye-poppingly huge and I was repeatedly told by other vendors and attendees that the annual summer conference is much, much bigger. At SES San Jose, which is supposedly the most vibrant SES show, the agenda was full but the exhibition hall surprisingly lacking. I did hear commentary to confirm that it was abnormal AND the show is a heckuva lot "younger," but it wasn't nearly as impressive.
I'm partially geeked because I had an amazing time. It wasn't party-party-party-- the only truly "social" event I attended was my company's reception on Friday and then I was playing hostess-- but it was crazy in other, more subtle ways. First, I had no idea I'd see so many publishers there... from big names like Random House and Penguin, to small local presses like Sasquatch. There was even a small section of one of the floors dedicated to comic presses desperately trying to get libraries interested in passing on their goods to patrons. Dark Horse, Viz Media, and DC Comics had booths, as well as several smaller niche presses with whom I wasn't familiar. Then, in the middle of it all, was Terry Moore, author and artist of my favorite graphic novel growing up, Strangers in Paradise!
I started reading SiP at the tender age of 12 (yeah, the content was a bit mature) when my best friend Lesley and I swiped it from her dad. I'd just found several old comics and graphic novel installments of it in boxes from my parents' house. And on Sunday there was Terry, drawing a panel! I looked like such a fangirl, wringing my hands with glee. He signed all my books, including the full set I bought from him (what can I say? 50% off is a good incentive!) and even drew me a little doodle, which is gorgeous, in the inside cover of book one. I haven't read the series for years, and now I have five of what will be six total books. I've got catching up to do. What a totally unexpected treat!
So, as I said, Friday was the reception at our company's office. Saturday morning we hosted a breakfast at the Hotel Monaco... prior to which I rose at 5:30 AM and spent half an hour waiting for a bus that never came. Then I worked at the booth for a couple hours before going home to crash. Seriously, what a draining week. Work stress, personal drama, hormonal... stuff, etc. I passed out for five hours straight and then went to bed at 1 AM not to get up 'till 10 the next morning.
Justin and ran a refreshed 10-miler for marathon training and maintained a pace consistent to what we've been setting down: 1:41 for him and 1:43 for me. If I can keep this up (again, that's a big *IF*) I'll PR by about an hour. But in the more likely event that I've got to slow down, relax, and take a breather, I still expect to PR by about half an hour. Exciting!
Both Justin and my mom joined me at ALA on Sunday. I managed to procure Justin an exhibits-only pass, and my mom works in a Bellevue library, so she was there on business. We walked around a bit and ogled some people's setups (like ProQuest's 2-story booth with a barista bar serving free coffee on top). Librarians are apparently more excited about collecting swag than the average exhibition-goer, because we saw people wandering about dragging SACKS and rolling carts FULL of it. Thankfully, though, most booths refrained from giving out truly useless things like T-shirts and stuck to goodies that librarians find useful... lots and lots and lots of pens.
The best part of the exhibition for those in search of books is the publisher booths because they sell books at 50%+ off. Then on Monday many of them discount the prices even further or simply give them away. Before we were scheduled to work at the booth, Jeff and I visited several book vendors and got some teen-lit and manga for my younger sister, a few free pre-released copies of chick-lit for me (which will probably make me laugh, gag, or both), a kickass cookbook, and an ARMLOAD of graphic novels from DC Comics.
I'd poked around the DC booth with Justin when he was on the floor, but they were neither selling nor giving out their stock. The girl at the booth seemed somewhat surly about it but told me to come back on Monday and she'd be giving out one to each who asked. When we did come back on Monday, surly girl had been replaced by another booth babe who was happy to give us over $150 in books for free in exchange for a few of our logo'ed umbrellas. Holy crap, Batman! I swear, all I wanted was Kingdom Come for Justin, but she kept laying them on me. I guess they decided they didn't want to take any boxes back to New York after all. Whoo!
All in all, it was most excellent. I met a ton of people from a diversity of companies, including several higher-ups at competitors. Jeff graciously introduced me to many folks he knew. I think that our reception, breakfast, and booth were really well received. What I hope most of all is that the new collateral (product catalogs and brochures) we've spent the last few weeks and all our energy designing is really as exciting as people say it is.
Now that the conference is over, work has taken on a much more relaxed pace, as I suppose it will remain for the next few days. Then it's onward and upward... getting ready for the next conference, the next RFP, whatever. Hurray for working life. >_<
Posted on January 23, 2007 @ 4:07 PM | 2 comments
Comments:
Count me VERY JEALOUS of your free comix. Sounds like a great conference!
By inkandpen, at
7:47 AM, January 24, 2007
Yay books and conferences!
By Rachel, at
6:04 PM, January 24, 2007
I get to work the expo floor this time rather than attending sessions as I did with my last job. Although I'm not sure exactly yet what I'll be doing, I think it'll more suited to my personality type because I get to interact with people rather than sitting through talks in dark rooms that, no matter how interesting, always put me to sleep.
And then there are the parties-- every industry's got 'em, it seems, and ours is no exception. Apparently librarians have a reputation for being crazy drunks at conferences. This surprises me, because I would have expected it from SEOs, who are often stereotyped as dodgy types, but not from bookish reference desk folks. Hm. I guess we'll see. My company is hosting a reception tomorrow night and though I'll miss the perks of being on the complete receiving end of complementary snacks, schwag, and booze at such an event, it'll be fun to play hostess. I also get to show my mother, who works in the City University library, where I work. I just hope I have the stamina to survive the weekend.
Posted on January 18, 2007 @ 10:22 PM | 0 comments
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As ALA is in town the 19-22, I'll be working at least partway through the weekend... ... and there's no rest for the weary. It's back to the grind as soon as the conference is all over to churn out another big project just in time to start getting ready for ACRL in March.
However, if I can figure out the ticketing, it looks like I'll be visiting Amsterdam again during "spring break," just in time for tulip season! I guess that's one good thing about working hard-- it certainly makes me appreciate the breaks.
Posted on January 17, 2007 @ 10:34 PM | 5 comments
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WOOT !!! hard work, fun playing and relaxing. ALA, ACRL, AMS ... notice how all the abbreviations start with "a"?
By , at
9:03 PM, January 18, 2007
Woo good times at work! You can dooo iiiiit.
I will be attending the TESOL conference in Seattle March 21-24, maybe not staying all four days, I'm not sure. I just registered for it this week. It would be fun to stay with you guys, if that's 'aight, and if you're both in town then. Letta me know!
By Rachel, at
10:12 PM, January 18, 2007
jeff: I'm going to name my own conference ASSHAT: American Society of Scientists, Humanitarians, Academics, and Theologians. HEH.
Rachel: Aw damn, dawg-- that's when we're gonna be in Europe. =P If it doesn't work out, we'd love to have you!
By Kat, at
10:38 PM, January 18, 2007
If you want to save on hotel bills you can stay at our house even if we're away :)
By Justin, at
11:10 PM, January 18, 2007
Aws bummer that we will miss each other. Thx for the invite to stay in your house tho, I might take you up on that. :Dh
By Rachel, at
10:07 PM, January 19, 2007
Posted on January 16, 2007 @ 8:30 PM | 3 comments
Comments:
Hi Kat! I wonder if you still remember about me...I'm Stefania, the Italian girl you met at Waseda, we stayed at the same family's during the school trip to Nagano... I used to read your old blog and didn't know you had started a new one. Then today I don't know why but you came up to my mind so I "googled" your name and...here I am! Nice to have you back in my virtual life!
By stefy, at
12:44 AM, January 17, 2007
You take really beautiful photos.
By , at
2:12 AM, January 17, 2007
hey Kat - the photo with the red berries, white snow and green leaves is really great. nice catch !! mmm..winter in the northwest. it's been an interesting winter. luv this post!!
By , at
9:04 PM, January 17, 2007
It may be personal bias speaking, but I think Justin hand-over-fist bested everyone at karaoke for his rendition of Six-Mix-Alot. Not only was it hilarious, it amazingly did not suck! Somehow he didn't sound like the dorky white boy he is (love you, hon) and did a fairly true-to-life impression. I hate to say it, but I bet he practices in the shower.
Anyhow, though I refrained from getting wasted, I had a bad mix of drinks and was cripplingly sick at an inopportune time. Thankfully, I think only one or two people saw so I may retain my dignity yet. (Wait, what dignity?) Needless to say, Justin and I spent Sunday on the couch, NOT on the run, though we did enjoy napping in the bright winter sun.
It's been a snowy week and to my delight, there is more snow predicted for tonight. It looks like that will be the last of it and then we're back to the same-old-same-old... BLAH RAIN. Funny enough, though the city sees fit to turn off the drinking fountains around Green Lake (and therefore deny us water breaks while running), the building maintenance for the office complex below my work has YET to shut off their sprinkler system. Not only does it seem superfluous to keep it on during the winter at all (November was record rain, right?) but it also means that they've been creating black sheet ice in the street near my gym every morning. It's not a big deal, but it doesn't seem particularly smart or safe.
The other morning, the sprinklers had left lovely little icicles all over the plants outside my building:
This evening after a long day at work for me and a relaxing MLK holiday for Justin, we hauled ass to Green Lake, twice around the outside, and back home for a satisfying 9-mile run with a time of 1:34:14. The cold and dark coupled with the promise or warm, pre-made dinner must've motivated me to run faster than usual. It felt good and I'm sure I'll be reminded of it tomorrow. Next Sunday we'll to 10 and then it's onwards and upwards from there!
Posted on January 15, 2007 @ 10:46 PM | 2 comments
Comments:
Try doing your long run on a Saturday. Then you can indulge on Saturday night with no guilt.
Don't you carry water with you? Those water carrying belts work great. Check out a local running store for one.
By running42k, at
3:43 AM, January 16, 2007
Typically, we do carry water with us on the longer runs... I have a bottle with a hand strap and pocket for Gu... Justin has a waist belt. The waist belts don't work as well on women as on men because we have a more dramatic waist and they ride up and bounce all over the place. I tried one out and it drove me nuts!
I should have known the city would have shut down the fountains in the cold weather... but when they're on, there's plenty to drink along the way!
By Kat, at
10:04 AM, January 16, 2007
It received rave reviews. No one expected that Kat's metrosexual white fiance would know all the lyrics cold...
Good party.
Posted on January 14, 2007 @ 2:54 AM | 6 comments
Comments:
We should do a Sir Mix-a-lot duet sometime.
By Lazy Lightning, at
5:21 AM, January 14, 2007
Where's the numine.com exclusive video coverage of such an event?
By Louie, at
12:53 PM, January 14, 2007
Tee hee, that'a hilarious. I'll be honest and tell you that at least 1-2 times per week, I will hear or think about hilarious pop songs of past and think: "Justin should really record himself singing this one and put himself on YouTube..."
By Rachel, at
10:08 AM, January 15, 2007
He did a truly, truly amazing job.
By Kat, at
10:52 AM, January 15, 2007
lolol. i dare you to go on youtube!
hey: justin: how long till you graduate? are you hoping to score a job in seattle or are you guys moving somewheres? have people started bugging the &$*! out of you yet with the "when are you having kids" comments?
By , at
8:24 PM, January 15, 2007
Justin'll graduate summer of next year-- about a month before the wedding. We may stay in Seattle depending how comfortable I'm feeling about life, jobs, friends, etc... we may return to Eugene... or we may adventure elsewhere! It's up in the air.
No one's really started asking us about kids yet. I think that usually comes after the wedding. But we're planning on waiting at least three years after we get hitched, if not more. :)
By Kat, at
11:09 PM, January 15, 2007