After another long night on ED, and finally getting out to actually be social, a friend asked me, in seriousness, So... what's it like to work surrounded by all those cute girls?

Cute?

$@%!!! cute.





Yes, virtually everything skews the male:female ratio in the same direction.

More women than men are becoming physicians overall. Pediatrics is even more skewed in the female-majority direction. And the ranks of the nurses, speech therapists, respiratory therapists, social workers, counselors, and all the other critical, indispensible members of the team are even more heavily skewed female. Many nights on call, the only male member of the entire staff on a given ward is me. And the age range does tend to skew young, especially on overnight calls. More older, more experienced personnel get promoted to administration, specialty services, or at least stop wanting to work nights. And then there are the legions of nursing *students* who rotate through one of the only two major pediatric hospitals in a region the size of Iowa. So yes, a male pediatric resident on call is going to spend days and nights surrounded by young, single women in tight scrubs. To a lot of guys, this seems like a great thing.

Those guys don't have an f**king clue.

When I'm on service, I don't want cute, young nurses and therapists. I want *old*, experienced nurses and therapists. I want *veteran* nurses and therapists. I want nurses with their thirty-year ribbons and Nurse Preceptor badges. I want nurses who have been there and done that, been to Hell and started an IV there. I want nurses who were holding the hands of my Division Heads when they were interns decades ago. I want nurses who have seen more crashing, coding, drain-circling kids than my entire resident class combined. Because when I'm alone on a floor with thirty critically ill kids, all of them just hanging one step from disaster, I don't give a rat's f**king ass how "cute" my nurses are. I want nurses who have the experience and the confidence to know what's important, what's not, and which kid Needs The Doctor Right The F**k Now. I can absolutely guarantee that in the middle of a crashing code -- or the brutal grilling of the Morbidity and Mortality conference afterwards -- one's thoughts are *not* going to be about how "cute" the nurse was. And every time a young nurse starts flirting with me on a night shift, my first and foremost thought isn't to be flattered or to consider how to play back in return. It's wondering whether that nurse is paying f**king attention to her -- *my* -- patients.

It was a lesson my older cousins drilled into me long before I ever put on a white coat, the proper respect -- fear -- driven into my spine. It's something ayradyss has made the theme of many of her recent, always-beautifully-written entries. As a doctor, your patients literally have their lives -- their tiny lives -- in your hands. Many of them will crash and die even if you do everything *right*. They will *certainly* do terribly if you get careless and do something wrong. Screw up, get careless, and you will *kill* people -- kill children -- and face their grieving families with the knowledge of your failure, this among many nightmares which are our lot. Walking that fire night after night, what I want backing me up is competence, confidence and experience -- the experience only years of trial by fire can buy. The more experience I can get, the better. I don't want nurses who could pose in soft-core skin mags, I want nurses who have been published in scholarly journals. I don't want a nurse with a cute ass, I want a nurse who can *kick* ass. And anyone -- any guy -- who can't or doesn't get that is someone I want as far friggin' away from any inpatient critical-care service I'm on as they can get.

Cute? Cute be damned.

Our old friend Toivo Rovainen once told me: "Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity." I know Toivo isn't the originator of this quote, or of its many variants, but since the actual origin is disputed, I always credit it to him. Words to live by, especially if you're like me, and tend to see purposeful slights in innocent mistakes. (I mostly only do this when I'm feeling tired or especially weak. Usually, I remember Toivo's wise advice.) So I beg that everyone will keep those words in mind when dealing with me, as well! My perpetual battle cry: "I'm working on it!"

Today I am working on clearing out the conversations in my sadly neglected etsy inbox. This is a small pile of work, and has the potential to be done today, assuming I don't run screaming into the night. Here are some results:

In Steampunk Jewelery news:
 
zkitten on etsy says: "if you let people know to buy stuff from me, and they mention you, I'll give *them* 10% off (orders over $20)" She also says that for every five people who buy and mention me, I'll get credit as well. So... you know... if you order from her, tell her where you heard about her! Heh.

I think I've linked to Heterodyne on etsy before, if not, have a look at the gorgeous things she has for sale. Eeee! I know that I haven't shown you her take on Gil's Lightning Wand or her lovely Heterodyne Pendant.

Aaand: Rivkasmom has been advertising with us a lot lately. Thank you! I do get a kick out of ads at the top of the page that match the theme of the site... vain of me, I know. And speaking of vain, which I am: look at this on her etsy page! It's a Sturmvoraus necklace! Yay!

Ahem. I should point out that none of these items are official licensed products. They're one-off "tribute" creations. Mass-production would be a copyright/trademark problem and all, but these aren't that.  I may enjoy them freely. So there.

There! That wasn't so bad. I have cleared out my etsy box. Now, on to lunch, and then my LJ box. (Why? Why must there be a million different places for email? Aaaah!) But one last thing, while I'm busy linking to etsy sites:

A while back ladyjestocost  and bedii  came over for dinner, and brought me a present: a copy of the Oct/Nov issue of Beadwork magazine. Why did I need this magazine? It features a story entitled "Forging a Steampunk Fantasy" by Melanie Brooks Lukacs of Earthenwood Studio. And look at that, just to make things more tempting: she's also got a store on etsy. Have a look at the gorgeous ceramic steampunk-themed beads.)  It's a lovely magazine, and the article is great. As was the dinner and company.

And that concludes this installment of: "Eeeee! Check out the steampunk jewelery!" Hm. I didn't really mean it to turn into that...

Gah! Barnstormers appear to be buzzing my house. I'm going downstairs to eat lunch. I'll probably be back later with more overdue linkage.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I am a fan (yet), but Stephen Colbert is definitely growing on me. Today, watching the episode of The Colbert Report from last Thursday, I had one wonderfully geeky moment when he started to analyze the Presidential race in Shakespearean terms. (Does anyone *not* know that I am a tremendous Shakespeare geek?) My absolute delight was capped when Harvard professor Stephen Greenblatt compared Sarah Palin to Bottom from Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Thinks [s]he can play all the parts; ready for anything, but actually is a horse's ass."

ROTFLMAO!!!

So perfect!

Also very much enjoyed the following Formidable Opponent in which Colbert came up with what I think is by far the best explanation of the financial crisis:

"It's like business syphillis....It started with a few slutty lenders who jumped into bed with some really subprime mortgages. The next thing you knew you had a credit orgy. People were swapping derivatives, AIG was all up in Fannie Mae, Wachovia took on Goldman West, then turned around and got it on with AG Edwards, then Citigroup had them all at once. It was a steaming pile of hot slapping assets. No one knew who was bundling who but it felt good and everybody was doing it, and in the end, let's just say the market blew its liquidity."

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!

One of the standard, key parts of the speedy-yet-through ED History taking.

Who lives at home?

And usually, the answer is: mother and siblings. Or mother, grandmother, and siblings. Or just grandmother and siblings. Or so on. Some combination of siblings and female family members.

And no men.





Many of the children we see in our ED have no fathers at home. In fact, *most* of the children we seen in our ED have no fathers at home. We're not even talking about divorced fathers; we're talking children who have no involved father whatsoever. Such isn't just not uncommon, it's practically the norm. In fact, it's more unusual *to* have an active, involved father among the kids we serve than not. The other day, I saw twelve kids in eight hours before I finally ran into a child who actually had a father. And it's not just an ED thing. The same holds for most of the services I've been on -- including Labor and Delivery, where more often than not there is no father present at the delivery. That's the norm among the population we serve -- a population that is both rich and poor, white and black, urban and rural alike.

Raising children is incredibly difficult even when you have two active, involved, collaborating parents. Raising children *alone*... juggling job, and school, and raising a household, and everything else, it's not hard to see where from arise the problems our patients and their exhausted, beaten, desperate single mothers and grandmothers face. The deck is stacked very badly against you when you're trying to do with just one person what really takes two people. After all, it took two people to begin with...

My own father, my grandfathers, my uncles, worked hard every day of their lives to be faithful and supportive husbands to their wives, and parents to their children. Showed me by example how a real man meets his obligations and duties, with loyalty and love. I was raised and taught that a person -- a man -- is defined by how he meets his responsibilities. How he accepts his duties. How he accepts and shoulders the consequences of the choices he makes. And except for very, very limited circumstances, sex is a choice on the part of a man, an act which cannot occur without his explicit consent. Seeing, day after day, just how terribly the women left behind struggle with the aftermath, there is a silent, burning rage that simmers like lava torwards all of those absent men.

Although, "man" isn't really a term they deserve. Because it takes more than a penis to be a man. And a man who abandons the responsibilities and consequences of his choices, and leaves the woman behind to deal with them... is no man.

Anyone looking for a roommate / place to live?

Reposting because I know there are a pile of y'all from Cowtown, OH on here.

Today's Dork Tower is up:



Click here, there or anywhere to see it.

****

Yeah, posted late again. A churning, slogging computer is to blame. Had to remove some files and free up space in order to get even slight tasks done.

Which leads into the fact that I figured out why Muskrat V, my (once-) Mighty and Powerful desktop Mac (Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5 with 1 GB DDR SDRAM) has been running so painfully slowly, recently.

Memory. Or rather, lack thereof. "Startup Disc Full" errors have been popping up, and the hard drive is bursting at the seams.

So now comes the painful decision: simply add more memory (I don't really want to take anything OFF the computer onto an external drive), or bite the bullet and pick up the new hotness.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

****

Archon was absolutely amazing. I'm hoping I get time to do a full report.

In the meantime, I don't think I thanked all the organizers, attendees and volunteers adequately, in my Guest of Honor speech at the closing ceremonies. I had a really wonderful time, and it was all thanks to the folks involved with this great regional con. My apologies for not fully expressing my gratitude - speeches aren't my strong suit, and I want to make sure everyone realizes how happy I am to have been there, and how wonderfully well everyone treated me!

****

Brewers lost and were eliminated. Badgers choked and lost again. Packers lost again.

It was a good weekend to be out of the state of Wisconsin, sports-wise...so double-thanks to Archon for the distraction, as well...

****

Ate at the venerable Sweetie Pies soul food restaurant Saturday night, with my brother's family.

Best. Fried-Chicken/Sweet Potatoes/Mac-and-Cheese/Smothered Pork. EVAR.

Again: too busy right this moment for a full write-up of the experience, but this was my first real experience with soul food, and it won't be my last. (Assuming I don't have a coronary from the meal, of course).

Also: my first experience with true Southern-style sweet ice tea.

Yeah. Amazing. My teeth still ache from that.

Weekend in bullet points.

• Vietnamese woman not speaking very much English manages to scold me anyway for not going to her salon to get my eyebrows plucked for more than two months. That was cute and endearing, actually.
  
• Looked at $50 DDR kit. Put $50 DDR kit back.
  
• Breno has car troubles. Again.
  
• I can still cook.
  
• Nice new knit dress; I think I will steal the pattern and knit one of my own when I'm done with the very, very experimental skirt.
  
• Sailing to Sarantium good book. Lord of Emperors I do not want to put down, but I had to because it was time to work again.
  
• Turkish Festival belle_canto yay. Also, pistachios and black olives yay.
  
• My eyes are burning for no good reason. Hrmph.

I made a post in the under utilized nm_vote with links to LWV resources for the upcoming bond and state constitutional amendments.

Please skim them and pass the info around.

http://community.livejournal.com/nm_vote/11189.html

An ignorant voter is often does more harm than a non-voter!

In 1988, an American woman marries a Norwegian, is shipping all her stuff on the plane, and is told at the last minute that she needs to pay an extra $103 in overweight charges.

Her husband is already in the air on a separate flight. She's in Miami, where she knows nobody. She has no cash on her. Oh, and it's 1988, making internet-phone-based solutions difficult.

She's breaking down crying because this is everything she owns, and she's trying to figure out what she can leave behind and what she can possibly keep, when the man behind her steps forward and says he'll pay her charge. He writes his name and his mother's address on a scrap of paper and she promises to mail him a cheque to pay him back.

Some of you might recognise him.

I utterly failed at this weekend's Project #1 (Clean the apartment to a state of non-horror), but I succeeded at Project #2 (set up all the computers and xbox and networking gear to play nice with one another)[*]. So now I can have all my computers and the xbox on-line at the same time--yays.

I will make a locked post later with my xbox live username, so y'all can friend me up. But in the meantime, here are my thoughts and complaints and questions:

1) What the hell is that points bullshit in the store? Okay, obviously it is a means to obscure the actual price of things, and skim a bit off the top from unused points, but I'd think that a respectable company like Microsoft could afford to not be so lame. Say what you like about Apple, montoya, but at least they price their stuff in real money amounts.

2) What games are good for online playing? I know you guys have your regular Halo 3 and Cataan dates (neither of which I currently own), but do you play anything else? (FTR, I'm more likely to eventually get into Halo than Cataan; for some reason I've never been a big fan of Settlers, but Mass Effect has reawakened my enjoyment of running around and shooting stuff.)

3) This is after-the-fact, but is there some way to update account stuff via a normal computer, rather than the xbox? Typing addresses, credit-card info, and such in with the controller via the on-screen controller is annoying.

4) Tell me something I don't know about xbox live!



[*] Well, I mostly succeeded. I expect problems the next time I try to use bittorrent, 'cause I didn't want to dink around with port forwarding, on top of everything else.

500 on The Lightriders. V. good. Though I think I might have overcompensated for the relative lack of detail in the first draft; the first chapter is now twice as long as it was at this point in the action before. Oh well.

Plan for the rest of the day: work till 5, possibly go to craft store (highly dependent on traffic), work on shrine scene and novel no. 2, practice fiddle, fall into bed.

'S a good plan. Hopefully I'll remember to eat dinner somewhere in there.

Meanwhile, here's a poem that happydog wrote and which I like.

A good and peaceful day to everyone.

Did I say Toronto? I meant Toronto and Lethbridge.

When we warned that failure to use eye protection when shooting BB guns can lead to horrifying eye trauma, we weren't f**king kidding.

I'm not sure the eye surgeons were even able to put the front of his eye back together again. Or the back.

Sigh.

( Monday October 6, 2008 )

GG original art auctions ending soon on eBay!

Lots of new pin designs and Jägermonster backpacks, now listed for pre-ordering on our company store!

Today was bizybizybizy. Wrote this morning and went for a run, then picked up sport jacket at Nordstrom, then went to Sickle rehearsal, which went pretty well. It feels like things are coming together, anyway. I think it'll be a good festival. And really I just have a few more tweaks to the shrine scene, which I will get done and sent out tomorrow—tonight, honestly, I'm just wiped.

After dinner I stopped briefly by mskoi's for mask fitting. OMG this thing is going to rock so hard. \m/

I think I'm still a little behind on my sleep. I think the plan now is to write a little and then go to bed. I've been in kind of a weird mood all weekend, of the restless kind that isn't unusual for me at this time of year but is kind of uncomfortable. It's been good to have friends and Mr. Darcy around, the last few days. Thanks for being your generally awesome selves.

Lifted from 7000 BC

* 10/11/08 Saturday -- Comics-making workshop (Free!) Noon - 5pm in Santa Fe at the Warehouse
* 10/18/08 - 10/19/08 -- 24-hour Comics Day (noon-noon). Free. Albuquerque at the Harwood Art Center, and Santa Fe at the Warehouse

Please note that both of these events have been added to the LJ Albuquerque (google) Calendar.

I've just built a google calendar for all the up-coming events that have been posted. Click here to see up-coming events

Please let me know if you'd like to have any events added.

Or did Anne Hatheway reign supreme on SNL last night?

I have my issues with SNL of late (mostly, it's not that funny, aside from sporadic Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's infectious giggles on Weekend Update), but Hatheway was marvelous.

(who knew that 'supercalafragalisticexpealadotious' was an STD..?)

In Toronto, having a Liberal sign in your yard may result in your brake lines being cut.

James Nicoll has a poll about this. The results, so far, are unsurprising.

PS: For the Americans joining us, that's The Toronto Star - a real newspaper, the largest paper in the largest city in Canada - not Star Magazine, an American tabloid. Because this HAS come up as a matter of questioning credibility, before.

If you're on my friends list, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine... you're on my list, so I want to know you better!

Comment here and repost a blank one on your own journal.
01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

I received this on one of my listserves regarding the under-21 GLBT group being up and running again-- the info on when/where is at the bottom of this description:


"Last night we had the first meeting of the Under 21 Group (U21) since it went on hiatus. We raised the insurance premiums we needed to cover for now, and had our first meeting on Friday, October 3rd. We started with 2 facilitators who were "veterans" of the group, but will be adding as the group grows and the more adults are needed.

The kids who attended were, coincidentally, all from the West Side. We had a great time getting to know each other and snacking.... I got an email from one of the girls first thing this morning, as well as from other kids who couldn't make it to the first one but are planning to start this coming Friday. I also got an inquiry from a mother whose son wants to come but she wanted more info. We're finally back in the business of providing support and connection for our youth during their crucial years. Thanks to EVERYONE who contributed to help get it restarted, and a special thanks to Mama's Minerals for donating our first big insurance premium installment by the due date. I'll update you from time to time as we grow...

Meanwhile, if you know any teens who could benefit from U21, please let them know we are meeting every Friday night from 7 to 9:30 pm at the ABQ Center for Spiritual Living on Louisiana, just north of the Mall. The entrance is in the back. The big room where we meet is in the basement of the social hall, and it has wonderful murals painted by the youth group at ACSL. The kids think it rocks. "