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Random tidbits about me:
I'm a Pisces

I don't hold any belief in the Zodiac stuff

But I do love water: swimming, scuba diving, hot tubs

Actually, I like most things outdoors

I often forget to change the air filters on my HVAC monthly

People often tell me they like my eyes, but I think it's a plot

I am continually amazed by how many people I barely know remark about my posts

I love the Internet

Rich Lassiter's Web Surfin' Blog

Xbox 360
2:29:00 AM Thursday, December 29, 2005

Now I'm cool. My new console arrived. So, Like I mentioned before, Sears came through for me. But this is nutty: the package I bought included the rechargable battery pack. BUT, you can't recharge it unless you buy the play and charge cable, which wasn't part of the package....HUH????? Anyways...my point for mentioning this is that I now have a pre-order for another Premium Xbox 360 that presumably should be available in January....anybody interested? I mean, you can take your luck with ebay or the retail stores...I just thought I'd offer.
Oh, BTW, the picture is AWESOME on the new machine...I'm currently d/ling all the accessory maps for Halo2. The only Xbox360 game that I currently own is Project Gotham Racing, but once Jan 1 rolls around and I have a little free time, I'll probably rent and/or buy another game or two.

Saguaro National Park West - a photoset on Flickr
6:34:00 PM Tuesday, December 27, 2005

More camera phone photos for you to enjoy!

Christmas Eve 2005
5:02:00 PM Saturday, December 24, 2005

I took a few photos with my camera phone just now, and uploaded them to Flikr. Merry Christmas Eve to all of you in colder climates!

Xbox 360 en route!
8:35:00 PM Friday, December 23, 2005

So...the saga unfolds like this: I nearly completed a pre-order from Wal-Mart.com, but while I was deciding if I wanted to spend $700 on this system, they sold out. The only remaining online retailer taking orders was ritzcamera.com. So, I preordered from them in September or so. I was all excited about the new machine coming my way. Then, a few weeks before shipment, I am informed M$oft did not make enough machines, and some lucky individuals such as myself would not get the console until 'after the holidays' (whatever that means). So, I tried various routes to secure one sooner...I ordered a second one from Gamestop, to see which company would get one in sooner, and I also apparently left my name on an email list with Sears.com, who came through! I got an email from Sears inquiring if I would still like to buy the console, which they are packaging with Project Gotham Racing, and extra controller, and a battery pack for a little over $500. SWEEET! Of course I would! A day or two later, the package is en route. According to UPS.com, it's in Illinois right now. (I love package tracking.) Should be here in a few days!
Now, all I have to do is finish building the projector mount to further prepare the gaming experience ;)

A Save
11:15:00 AM Tuesday, December 20, 2005

I was working a night shift the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Thursday. I had intubated a TCA overdose in room 8, called the hospitalist, and the patient was in the process of being admitted to the ICU. Meanwhile, I've moved on to seeing other patients. At about 4 am, I'm examining a new chest pain patient in room 4, and there is an overhead page, "We need a doctor in Room 8."
I excused myself from the old fellow with Chest Pain, and called for the hospitalist to come back and see this guy who had been admitted to his service. Then I ran down the hall to see what was going on. Turns out, it was a new patient, and he was just being transferred from the EMS gurney over to our ED bed. The paramedic is saying something about how the guy was in the bathroom and 'just collapsed.' The patient was already undressed, and I see as they are rolling him to the other bed what looks like black stool. I seized the opportunity to check that for blood, and sure enough, it is. As we're getting him hooked up to the monitors, I see that he is breathing, has a reasonable pulse, but his blood pressure is in the toilet.
My first thought was that he had bled out from an aortic aneurysm (really, in hindsight, this doesn't add up completely, but his belly did seem distended), so I grabbed the ultrasound probe, and found an aorta of only 2.5 cm. Nope.
He'd been in the room about 2 minutes, but hadn't made any really purposeful movements, so I checked his gag reflex, and he promptly vomited blood all over himself. "Well, that solves the location of where the bleeding is coming from," I think to myself.
So, we intubated him, and I asked for an EKG, 2 units of uncrossmatched blood, and a couple of liters of saline. The EKG shows dramatic ST elevations in the lateral leads.
The hospitalist arrived about the time of the EKG (maybe 8 or 10 mins after the patient's arrival), and we worked together to try and patch this guy up.
I went to put in an a-line, missed with the first needle, and then when I was trying to get the protective sheath off the second needle, I stuck my finger! Grrrr! (Only that's not the expletive I used at the time.) Fortunately, the needle was still sterile, and I had just put on a fresh pair of gloves and applied betadine to the patient's wrist with the hand that got stuck, so I wasn't really contaminating myself. But, it certainly slowed the flow of things since I had to address my finger for a few moments.
So the hospitalist threaded the a-line, I stitched it closed, and then placed an IJ (internal jugular central venous line), because by this time he had a couple of infusions, and blood products and saline in each arm. I spent a long time talking with the family. Turns out our patient was a retired physician! The cardiologist and the gastroenterologist were called. I believe both saw him before he went up to the ICU. The general consensus was that our patient was toast... His initial Hgb was around 9. After the second unit of blood was in, it was around 7, and he was recieving the typed and crossed 3rd and 4th units.
I spent some time explaining to the wife that it was unlikely he would survive, and if he did, he may not have full mental function...he had bled so much that he was not able to carry the oxygen his organs needed. The reason he was confused when he arrived was lack of oxygen perfusing the brain, and likewise, with the heart.
Last night, I was talking with the hospitalist about this patient. He left the hospital about a week ago, walking under his own power, and apparently with full mental faculties. That gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. It's not often that you know you saved someone's life (I mean, even on the occasions when it happens, you often don't find out about it).
On a more comical note...I was placing an NG tube after I intubated him, but somehow he managed to vomit around the tube and hit me! My first thought was, "I've got to get this off so I can finish seeing the CP in 4!" Fortunately, it was only a few small splashes, and our scrubs are navy blue ;)

SAMSUNG's Digital World - Sprint SPH-A900
10:49:00 PM Monday, December 19, 2005

I have been dealing with a crappy Motorola phone on the Nextel network for a year. I doubt a week goes by without me complaing at least once about the phone. A particular annoyance is the charging cable...it is difficult to insert, and frequently doesn't seat itself very well. I thoroughly do not recommend the i730 to any user. Moreover, I have not been very impressed with Nextel as a whole. I switched to that company and got the phone for free after rebate about a year ago. The benefits were that the Nextel service worked at both my house, and the Miracle College, in Georgia. However, now that I'm in a bigger city, cell coverage seems overall better, and Sprint works fine at my house. Since they're the 'same company' now, I was able to switch back to Sprint without paying the $200 "I want to switch away from my Nextel Contract" fee. I was not that impressed with most of the phones on the market, but Samsung just released the SPH A900, which is Samsung's competitor to the RAZR. The phone is also called the Blade (razr/blade?).
I had a Sprint phone before the Nextel one, and I also had a Samsung phone. I was really happy with the Samsung (except for the silly panda for the screen saver). There seems to be some difficulty in switching over from Nextel to Sprint. It took the Sprint employees an HOUR to accomplish this task when I was in the store on Saturday, and I currently do not have a working phone number.
I've been on hold with Sprint for the past 9 minutes trying to get my new phone set up properly. I'm sure this will eventually work itself out. Overall, I'm really excited about the new phone...Bluetooth, 1.3 MP camera, EVDO network, and it plays MP3s. The screen is really bright, and the phone is light, but feels solid. Provided Sprint/Nextel can work this glitch out, I should be home free with a new phone, soon.

ABEM - American Board of Emergency Medicine
5:40:00 PM Thursday, December 15, 2005

Good news, I got the results of the written test, and I Passed. Yea! Regular readers may recall some test anxiety I had back in Oct. I took a course in Vegas to review...it didn't teach me very much at all, but at least it forced me to get through all the material at least once. Now there's just that pesky oral exam coming up in 2006.

single
4:13:00 PM Monday, December 12, 2005

Maggie and I split up about two months ago. My 'comment' traffic really tapered off after that. She used to tell me she felt bad that no one left comments on my website. I get occasional emails from friends referrencing this site, and the hit map and hit counter show that people are visiting, but I sure don't know who you are ;)

On the technology front...I had tried to turn an older computer into a Linux box, running the Linspire installation, and use it to store MP3s, movies, and whatnot. But, I had the worst time figuring out how to share the Linspire drives with the XP computers on the network. So, I gave up, and just re-installed XP on it. Now, all my computers can talk to each other again. I also have three different wireless standards in my house! The Belkin Pre-N Router has MIMO (multiple in, multiple out) Wireless technology, so I can have my mp3 server on 802.11b using a USB wireless adapter, I have my tablet running 802.11g, and my desktop is connected at 108 mbps using a Pre-N card. I thought the card would be PCI interface, but instead, it was a PCMCIA adapter and a detachable card. That means I can just pop that card into my tablet, or even someone else's computer, should they come over and need fast access. Now that I have all the computers talking to each other, I was able to move the router into the den, so I could plug the Xbox back in to the internet. I just wasn't willing to play over wireless, so it's plugged in now. I was hoping to have the 360 and the high def cables that come with it, but since M$oft won't ship enough...I've been waiting on mounting my PJ to the ceiling. I guess I have enough other projects to work on. Next up: finish repairing the backyard fountain and build a bookshelf/bar/wine rack :)

World66
12:19:00 PM Sunday, December 11, 2005

I found a really cool music website today, called Pandora. You type in the name of an artist you like, and the station broadcasts music that it thinks you would like. It's pretty cool. If it plays something you don't like, you just have that song deleted. The service is free, and they must have some sort of link with iTunes, because the links to buy the music route you to the apple site. It reminded me of a website that I'd seen previously that linked artists...I was scrolling back through my blog to try and find it, and along the way I got to my image of the world, from World66, that shows the countries you've visited. I'm up to 30 countries:

AMEX Wishlist
3:17:00 AM Friday, December 09, 2005

Someone at the Woot Forums reminded me about the American Express Wishlist website, where they have a few ridiculously good deals throughout the day. I tried to buy a number of items last year, but my orders never went through. I had forgotten about it, but I'll be looking into it again this year. For instance, today, they have some Xbox360s! Hopefully AMEX has boosted their server capacity this year.

Skype 2.0
5:00:00 PM Tuesday, December 06, 2005

So, Skype 2.0 Rocks! The built-in webcam function is pretty damn sweet. My sister and I just chatted around the world, and I occasionally had some lost words on her end, but we had full screen, full-motion video with our webcams (intel cs430--it's not made anymore, get yours used off eBay). I bought a linksys cordless USB phone to use with my computer and skype, instead of just using the microphone and computer speakers, so it's like chatting on a real phone. Also, with the new Skype 2.0, it will automatically start video with the other user (if you want it). One caveat, you have to set the Windows default audio different from the plugged in phone, or else all of the computer's sound is routed to the phone.

Christmas Lights
4:40:00 AM

So, my plans for Tuesday consist of cleaning up my house and putting up some Christmas lights and other misc. decorations. I'm especially motivated after watching this really cool video of a synchronized light show that a guy in Ohio did. Apparently it was on the today show (right-click and download THIS). You can learn more about the whole thing here. While I was looking for information about the video so I could post it on this blog, I also found this really cool video of the Umbilical Brothers.
Thanks to Tim for passing along the video to me.
In completely unrelated news...I'm planning a snowboard trip next weekend....anyone wanna go?

Computer Help
8:29:00 PM Thursday, December 01, 2005

I had two people ask me today for advice on computers...so I decided to write up a little page with my advice and some hints/tips on managing your windows machine better. Check it.

Cheap Stingy Freebies
8:39:00 AM

I've been using Cheap Stingy Freebies for a little while to look for good deals, that are usually free...it's a spinoff of the Cheap Stingy Bastard I mentioned previously, who has since changed the website name to Cheap Sting Bargains. Today I got a sweet deal from Staples: TurboTax Basic, Quicken Deluxe, and a 6 sheet paper shredder all free after rebates, AND their rebate submission is online, so you don't have to mail any UPC codes in or anything. All you need to do is be sure to enter the coupon code on the bottom of the quicken deluxe page to get $30 off your order, and then go to this rebate page to submit them. Shipping is free, too. I've been using Quicken and TurboTax for years, and I highly recommend them. The current coupon code you need to enter after adding the Quicken to your cart is 58913, but it expires on 12/03/05 (possibly there will be a new rebate after that? if you missed it, you're still getting a pretty good deal. I usually wind up paying $30 for one of these products to get the other one for free during tax season). Please comment if you got the deal :)